Good morning, happy Monday, omg, I went to see Rogue One last night at a 10:15 show and I am already staggering around like a zombie. If I don't use my brain over lunch, I will fall asleep with my head on my desk. Plus, there is a sad lack of actual geeks at this new workplace, so I have no one to actually babble at.

Tag; you're it!

First off, we almost didn't make it to the movie at all. #2Son was having a really rough weekend, anxiety-wise, and I had just about given up on him wanting to leave his safe spaces at the house when he came up after 8 pm and wanted to know if it was too late to go. *I* certainly wasn't going to tell him 'no,' but we couldn't make the 8:25 show and there wasn't another one starting until 10:15. That actually was good on the regular part of life, as BabyBoy had some complicated print job he was trying to put together for his lit project (we ended up at Kinko's on the way to school this morning) *and* had just remembered that he needed cookies for a Drama Club party/cookie swap today. You all will be very proud in that I didn't leap in to make them for him, just found the box of Ghirardelli chocolate-carmel cookie mix and yelled answers to his questions while running around dealing with the dogs, etc. But he got them made and Oldest, #2 & I took off for the theater.

I think our reactions are best summed up by #2: at the end, during the credits, I said words to the effect of this wasn't like Marvel, no need to stay through the credits, and he said, "Yeah, but I'm not sure I'm ready to stand up yet."

I told kaelie this morning that I felt like I had a book hangover and couldn't quite break free of the fictional world that had taken over my brain.

I still can't quite believe they actually went there and killed everyone. That's not a criticism, just a holy-cow-they-don't-do-that-in-Star-Wars observation. The last act was just relentless, right to the very end.

The boys and I were talking on the way home from the theater, about how this reconciled me a bit the timeline. I'd always thought that it seemed like it should have been longer between Sith and ANH, that the Empire that was so dominant in ANH felt like it would have needed more time to get that much control, but in looking at the well-organized Alliance here in R1, I can see where it had to be that shorter time frame, otherwise there'd have been no way for the Alliance to have built up as much power as they did have.

I'd also kind of been thinking this was more of a heist movie, where the players' backstories are important to the success of the plot, but this was more that they went and did what had to be done and if they were anonymous in the end, it didn't matter because it was their combined effort and determination to keep going (all the way to those last troopers on the ship desperately handing the disk off as Vader was mowing them down) that won the day.

Also, how *much* data and research did Tarkin incinerate in the (unsuccessful, HAH, I spit at you, Grand Moff Tarkin) attempt to stop them. I was delighted nearly 40 years ago when he was too insufferably smug to evacuate and thus got incinerated by the farmboy's lucky/Force-guided shot; I am equally delighted today. Though I did love how neatly he took Krennic's toy away from him (I thought it was too awesome that Krennic, who was trying so hard to be smug and supercilious, like Tarkin, was completely out-played by everyone. Galen not only delayed the construction as much as he could, but built in the fail-safe right under Krennic's nose; Tarkin out-played him; Vader only let him go because he's a cat who likes to play with his kill.)

And of course, I loved all the Easter eggs and cameos, but I will save you from my ultra-geekiness (the Red leader/Gold leader chatter made my heart skip a beat) except to say that Denis Lawson might not have wanted to come back to play Wedge, but Red Two was still there, at least in voice-over, and voiced by the guy who overdubbed DL in the original when he sounded too British; and, BE STILL MY HEART, that was Biggs Darklighter, Blue Two.

Also, that shot of the X-Wings diving straight down through the quickly closing forcefield is right up there with the X-Wings coming in over the water in TFA as far as my personal favorites go.

As I said to the boys, I must now go and read ALL THE STORIES (and really, truly watch the rest of Clone Wars and Rebels.)

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I still can't quite believe they actually went there and killed everyone. That's not a criticism, just a holy-cow-they-don't-do-that-in-Star-Wars observation. The last act was just relentless, right to the very end.

I KNOW RIGHT? And yet as sad as it was - I actually cried - I'm so glad they did it. (Though I desperately wanted Bodhi Rook to survive.)

The use of the old footage of Red and Gold leaders was great, as were the lady pilots! There were so few women around so I was glad when they finally showed up.